Table of contents

Picts

Why Use them

Little is actually know about Picts, they appear to be a lose confederation of tribes based in and around Northern Scotland. Very little evidence remains, mostly in the form of sculpture, a few fortified Brochts, and a few scant mentions in Roman texts.
So, why use them?
We use them because they are fun! Putting out wall-to-wall ravening hordes of (not-tartan clad) warriors will certainly make your opponent think, especially when you then declare some are superior and others are in ambush! You can field them with clouds of skirmishers and a decent body of flanking light horse. Plus chariots, which, as we all know, are cool!

Pros

Hordes of cheap, devastating charge, warriors and lots and lots of skirmishers to cover you on the way in. You also get light horse with cantabrian, but they are javelin armed, so don't often get to do much apart from pester opposition cavalry!

Always take very dense mountains if you defend, your whole Pictish section of the army is tribal flexible, watch your opponent sweat as they try to take you back to nice, flat, plains!

If you go for the years of the 'Barbarian Conspiracy ' you can also take some solid Saxon allies, also protected devastating chargers, they also come with at least one unit of superiors with impact weapons and that is a nasty surprise for many armies.

Integral in your armies are also the Attacoti. Legendary warriors, described in some sources as cannibals, they are superior devastatingly chargers, but also unprotected. Brilliant flankers and ambushers, but not suitable for longer melee!

The army usually comes in with at least 9 TUGs, and can fill a deployment area side to side. Don't be afraid to use your dense terrain to ambush from.

The army can also field superior chariots, a strong and worthy option if you prefer a little mobility in your flanks. There is little or no archeological evidence of chariots after c.300CE, but they're great!

Cons

Once you are past impact, no one has any melee abilities, you will fight nearly every combat of white dice. You are relying on strength on numbers and a lot of luck.
Unless you take Saxon allies or chariots you are limited to 24 bases of protected troops, against Romans this puts you straight away on a double minus. But then you will have 9 or more stands vs the Imperialist aggressors! Avoid Sassanid catafracts on hills too!

Expect to take heavy losses in terms of units. You will either sneak a win, or blow up completely, but you will have a LOT of fun doing it!

Using them in MeG

Intermix protected and unprotected troops, field your 8s of protected in 2 wide 4 deep columns, you might get stalled getting into combat vs shooting troops, but the strength of this formation is that you MUST get at least two units into each one of your opponents to secure a break on them. The average enemy unit will have 6-8 stands, to break that you need to commit 17 stands (of which you might lose 9).

Against anyone who is not flexible, keep yourself in as dense terrain as possible.

Charge! You have shatter, and when it works, it's +2 on +2 for devastating charge. Always start with a stand that has friends on either side so they benefit from this.

Get your opponent to charge your skirmishers, they shoot and scoot behind your line. If you are lucky, you can then slow and disrupt your opponents ' lines. Follow this by a massed charge against their fractured line, and life becomes good.

Don't be afraid to ambush. It puts you further details em table and a wary opponent will be avoiding that terrain too, further squashing their lines!